“Were we to hold our peace the stones would cry out; yet if we speak, what shall we say? Teach us to know that we cannot know, for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” — A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
A.W. Tozer begins his book The Knowledge of the Holy with a stunning thesis. He says, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” He describes how a right view of God can free a man from thousands of temporary problems.
The first few chapters of that book captivated me this week. It made me realize how we can spend so much time using God and the Scriptures to aid our own lives that we hardly know God. We are too busy trying to figure ourselves out and doing what we can to “become” better.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a better person, but it is the wrong conversation to be in. We will always come up short. The law of Moses can only justify a person who obeys it perfectly. Even the most studious and diligent fail to uphold its commands. The greatest of us fail to be good enough. Although we have heard the repetitive teachings that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works, most of our faith is still motivated by personal betterment. The Bible has to extend beyond another self-help book on the shelf.
When was the last time we sat and just thought about God?
WHO IS GOD?
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.1
The ambition to know God leaves a man helpless. It strips us of our talents, intellect, strategy, and achievements. It disarms us of all we can produce and all we can do. None of that earns us the knowledge of God. Anyone can study about a person but not everyone will know them.
The more we see God, the more lost we become in ourselves. Luckily, I heard a great teacher once say, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”2
We fear what we can’t understand. The fear of the Lord begins with understanding that we can’t understand God. This posture is abandoning our preconceived ideas in an earnest desire to see God as He is and not as we want Him to be. We need an understanding of God that we can’t measure. After God strips us of who we think we are and who we think He is, there begins the journey of truly knowing Him.
In the book of Proverbs, both wisdom and knowledge are used interchangeably. Understanding the fear of the Lord is the same as discovering the knowledge of God. They go hand in hand. The fear of the Lord keeps us from drawing close to God with our mouths while our hearts remain far from Him.
The fear of the Lord is not a commandment taught by men but a work of the Holy Spirit to know Jesus as Lord. When Jesus is Lord of our lives, we enter into the knowledge of God by way of the cross—not by way of our minds.
The fear of the Lord escorts us into the knowledge of God. The Holy Spirit can then illuminate the path of wisdom.
HOW TO BECOME WISE: BECOME A FOOL
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.3
Paul, the man who ran this race before us, leaves us with great wisdom. He shares how his witness of the gospel was in weakness, fear, and much trembling.4 Instead of memorizing strategies to convince others of the way of salvation, he instead decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.5 This gives us an insight that his quiet times with God were not a conversation about how he could become a better messenger. Paul only sat down to know Christ and Him crucified.
Our witness is not with plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.6 Faith is not about us. Faith is about believing Jesus. The cross is foolishness to the world and the human mind. It confronts the wisdom of men with the supremacy of God over all things. God chose to advance His kingdom not through talent and charisma, but weakness. This strategy testifies to the power of God as He moves through broken vessels that have been changed by love.
We have to be taught the knowledge of God by the Holy Spirit. We can’t know the heart of God without the Spirit of God giving us understanding. Our physical minds can’t interpret spiritual truths without the Helper.
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit so we might understand the things freely given us by God.7 This is the treasure we are digging for.
THE SHOVEL
My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.8
We choose the way we walk. We choose the voices we listen to and the company we keep. Wisdom cries out in the street, waiting for who will hear and respond to her voice. Understanding the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God is not a passive sport. There are practical choices that must be made.
We can’t expect to find godly treasures of revelation when we are engaging in affairs that do not honor the Lord. That is digging in the wrong field. We can’t expect to win a race on a diet of fat and rich foods. We must trade wine for vegetables and water and feast on the delicacies of heaven. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to do this—how to dig. We can’t do this by ourselves but in gracious communion with Jesus. It is ministry to God when we set out to know Him. This is the lifestyle we were made for.
LIKE A CHILD
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.9
The kingdom of heaven is for the least, the last, and the lowly. We do not enter by elitism, talent, good works, intellect, diligence, or maturity. We can only enter the kingdom by faith in the Son of God. All we can do is come before Jesus with empty hands and a cry in our hearts. Like a child reaches for his father, so we reach for ours. Take us where we cannot go on our own.
This week as we sit before an open Bible, let us begin not with ourselves, but Him. Let our prayers begin with our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.10 Maybe that prayer will escort us into all other prayers.
When we see God rightly, everything else will fall into place.